Ricerc@Sapienza

The proposal aims to improve the knowledge in the field of analytical detection of new psychoactive substances (NPS), starting from the drugs identified in seizures by the Italian law enforcements or reported as potentially dangerous to health.
The project targets at developing innovative analytical tools for the detection of NPS and their metabolites in biological matrices by using different mass spectrometry (MS) techniques and data mining tools; in addition, drug metabolites and alteration of endogenous metabolites will be studied for identification of NPS assumption biomarkers.
To address the analytical issues related to NPS detection the proposal aims at creating a comprehensive and publicly available tandem mass spectral NPS database that will be exploited for the analysis of authentic seizure samples obtained by law enforcements. Specific workflows for untargeted LC-HRMS detection of known and unexpected NPS by suspect screening, spectral matching and computational algorithms, such as molecular networking (MN), will be developed as part of the project plan.
The metabolic profile for selected NPS will be studied through in vitro/in vivo studies and LC-HRMS analysis. Hepatocyte incubation will be performed at this purpose, while in vivo experiments will be carried out in cooperation with University of Ferrara.
Finally, in order to get a complete picture of the biochemical response of animals exposed to selected NPS, biological samples will be analyzed through an untargeted LC-HRMS metabolomics pipeline, allowing the simultaneous detection of endogenous metabolites affected by drug use.
The project will provide researchers and law enforcement agencies with new tools for MS based non target analysis of forensic samples and with new toxicological data. By reinforcing the existing monitoring instruments and methods, the project will facilitate the detection of NPS and their metabolites in seizures and biological samples.